Heart disease is very serious and often requires emergency operations to save lives. A main cause of heart disease is the accumulation of plaque inside the blood vessels, which eventually occludes the blood vessels. Common treatment options available to open up the occluded vessel include balloon angioplasty, rotational atherectomy, and intravascular stents. Traditionally, surgeons have relied on X-ray fluoroscopic images that are planar images showing the external shape of the silhouette of the lumen of blood vessels to guide treatment. Unfortunately, with X-ray fluoroscopic images, there is a great deal of uncertainty about the exact extent and orientation of the stenosis responsible for the occlusion, making it difficult to find the exact location of the stenosis. In addition, though it is known that restenosis can occur at the same place, it is difficult to check the condition inside the vessels after surgery with X-ray.
Often intravascular catheters and guidewires are utilized to measure the pressure within the blood vessel, visualize the inner lumen of the blood vessel, and/or otherwise obtain data related to the blood vessel. Catheters containing pressure sensors, imaging elements, and/or other electronic, optical, or electro-optical components suffer from larger diameter bodies that can make passing through tortious vascualtorure more challenging, and may be too large to safely pass beyond some regions of stenosis. Guidewires containing pressure sensors, imaging elements, and/or other electronic, optical, or electro-optical components can have a higher incidence of electrical problems since they typically include fragile electrical connections that are disconnected and reconnected to accommodate catheters introduced over the guidewire. These fragile electrical connections often include conductor bands that enable the guidewire to rotate relative to a proximal connector while maintaining an electrical connection. However, these conductor bands are costly from a materials cost and a labor cost. Further, these connections may not provide the desired level of consistency and predictability.
In addition, because of their extremely small diameter, typically in the range of about 0.25 mm to 1.5 mm, current guidewires typically require an attachable torque device for manipulation of the guidewire. Attaching and detaching the torque device can be tedious and time consuming.
Accordingly, there remains a need for improved intravascular devices, systems, and methods that include one or more electronic, optical, or electro-optical components.